


things you said across the galaxy

by tsunkiku



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drabble Collection, Every character I write is emo no exceptions, Garrison Sheith, M/M, POV Keith (Voltron), Pining, Pre-Kerberos Mission
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 08:58:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12553876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsunkiku/pseuds/tsunkiku
Summary: A collection of drabbles featuring various pairings all centred around conversations between characters.





	things you said across the galaxy

Sometimes, when it really hurt, Keith would look at the maps.   
  
There were high tech hologram star maps inside the garrison; one notably beamed up in a central panel in a darkened room that you could walk through, surrounded by stars as though you yourself had been changed into something celestial. Not that advanced, yet, but Shiro proudly informed him that they were learning more about the universe that surrounded them all the time. Soon, he said, that vast emptiness would shrink until it was a nothingness small enough that he could grasp it with one hand.   
  
So many stars, so many planets; and this was only a small smear of what was out there? Keith could hardly believe it, but it was there, luminescent at his fingertips. He could remember the smile on Shiro’s kind face as he’d cradled one fuzzy ball of light in his palm. They had snuck in, late one night, when sleep felt like another kind of parting and neither of them could quite bear it. Not yet.   
  
“This,” his voice was soft, eyes burning bright in the violet glow, the air lit with electronic embers, “is Kerberos. I’ll be here soon. And Earth, that’s-”  
  
He’d looked up, making as if to gesture over to the lonely orb that was their home, but Keith was already standing there. Lingering, as if he were trying to taste the distance that was to come. Only a feet, now, but soon..   
  
‘Soon’. How he hated it, that word, and all that it meant. Neither of them said it, because Keith was too afraid and Shiro didn’t want to hurt him, but he felt it nonetheless. ‘Soon’ was a lump in his throat.‘Soon’ was the empty space on the tiny mattress Keith felt lancing into his chest when Shiro rose in the night to get a glass of water. ‘Soon’ was a tidal wave on the horizon, the first rumbles of an earthquake. ‘Soon’ was the end, and every night it inevitably crept closer.  
  
Keith stared at the hologram, held in his cupped hands. Dull. Tiny. He could have swallowed it. Crushed it, between his teeth. He closed his fingers, and the light died inside his fist.   
  
Soon. Soon, Shiro would be gone. Soon, he’d be alone again. Soon, it wouldn’t just be a few feet of holographic map between them.  
  
“Keith..”  
  
God, how he hated that voice. The pity laced in it made the muscles in his throat cord together tight. He could handle that, endure it happily, if it meant basking in the light of Shiro’s attention, but it was the hurt underneath it that stung, a pain that mirrored his own. If he could bring himself to act glad for Shiro and his assignment, would Shiro be unhappy at all? He knew that he was hiding his excitement from him; felt guilty about it, at times like these when he failed to staunch his enthusiasm.   
  
Maybe, if he was a better, stronger person, a man and not a petulant child, then he could share in Shiro’s wonder. He could look up at the stars, point at the distant smear of darkness in which Kerberos spun lonely and eternal, and instead of emptiness of space Keith would feel his heart overflow with starlight. Shiro looked at this map and breathed in deep the vastness of it, savouring the taste on his tongue. Keith could barely glance twice at it.   
  
Shiro’s hands fell away from hologram Kerberos, and he took a step towards him, crossing millions of kilometers in one soft footfall. “Keith, we-”  
  
“Four thousand, six hundred, and seventy million miles,” Shiro paused, rooted by the softness in Keith’s voice that he had not expected. Keith was only soft in private, in murmured promises whispered between tears and kisses. Keith heard him swallow, imagining the silent bob of his throat. He loved it there, the tiny crook between jaw and neck. There, he could feel his pulse. He could taste his scent. He hid there, in that small space, whenever he could, afraid that it might be the last time. “That’s how many miles there will be. Maybe more. Depends on the moon’s orbit.”  
  
Shiro said nothing. Keith couldn’t tell whether it was because he had nothing to say to that, or because he was waiting for Keith to say more, or because he didn’t want to pierce the emotion that was inflating between them.   
  
Keith clenched his jaw, tightly, before he went on. “And Earth’s, I suppose. That counts for a lot, much as a couple more thousand millions. You’re leaving when we’ll be at it’s closest point, but then, in a half a year, you…”  
  
His voice trailed away into silence. Carefully, he unfurled his fingers. He half expected the Earth to be crumpled and broken inside his fist, a captured insect, but it ebbed and glowed just like before. It really was beautiful. Keith wished they had spent more time in this room before Shiro had to leave. He loved the nights he spent with Shiro on the roof of his shack, when they pointed at the sky and picked out constellations, their hands linked lazily, easily. The comfort of knowing one another was close, and not leaving anytime soon.   
  
Please, please, _please_ , the longing for just one more night of that simplicity made him feel like he was splitting open at the seams.   
  
“You should say billion.”   
  
Somehow, in the seconds spent tangled in his anguish, Shiro had crossed the room to stand the centre, smiling faintly as prodded at the familiar shape of Saturn, hovering near his face. The lights shone all around him, illuminating his features from every angle. Light of every colour. Shiro’s dark gaze slid towards him, reflecting every gasp of that glow, iridescent, and for a moment his eyes became the sky.   
  
He was so, so beautiful.  
  
“I don’t-”  
  
“Four point six seven billion. See, it sounds less.” It did. Shiro always knew the right thing to say, the reasonable thing, the solution. It wasn’t just because he was a good leader and knew people and was practised in the art of reassuring him, it was because he was _his_ Shiro, and he knew him, better than anyone, and soon he would be gone and he wouldn’t be there to say those things to calm him down anymore, and--  
  
“But even then, it’s more like three point six billion or so. You know,” the edge of his lips quirked upward. Something in Keith started to crack. “not that far.”  
  
Another step, and now Keith could reach out and touch him, if he wanted; narrow the rest of the distance as if a million miles were nothing but inches, and space between their lips was nothing but a breath between them. It could be. It was. But soon, it wouldn’t.   
  
Keith’s hands flexed and unflexed at his sides, the only sound in the room the creak of his father’s old leather gloves and the unspoken words suspended in the air like motes of dust.   
  
His voice was thick as he muttered, “It’s far”. His lip trembled. Fuck, no. He wasn’t meant to crumble like this. He was meant to be Shiro’s Keith right up until the end. Fiery, overconfident, lips never too far from a smirk. That was the version of him that Shiro wanted to remember, right? Not this miserable, pining, ache of a boy. He wanted the Keith who looked at the stars and smiled because they were huge and beautiful in their multitudes. Not the one who was too afraid to glance at them in case he was reminded of how far away they were.   
  
Shiro’s arms were around him before he was able to stumble to his next thought.   
  
“Keith,” warm against the shell of his ear, his name was so felt so soft shaped by Shiro’s lips. “It could be ten billion miles, and it wouldn’t matter. It could be twenty billion. A hundred billion. It could be on the other side of the universe, and it wouldn’t make a difference.” His embrace tightened, and Keith squeezed himself tighter within it. He breathed in, deeply, his nose crushed against that space against Shiro’s throat that he loved so much.   
  
“It won’t be that long. I promise.”   
  
Silence sank around them. It pooled at their feet like water. Keith let himself bathe in it, wishing that this feeling of accepting the loss of the thing he loved most would last longer than just this moment.   
  
Keith’s fingers twined themselves in the loose fabric of Shiro’s uniform. He’d flung it on, just in case. He tugged at the lapels, hiding his smile against Shiro’s neck. “Stupid. You could’a just snuck out in your shirt.” He pulled back, just enough, to glance up at Shiro’s expression, a grin splitting his mouth the moment he caught it.   
  
“Don’t make that face.”  
  
“What face?”   
  
“You know; your sad face. Your pouty one.”  
  
“I _don’t_ pout.”  
  
“You are literally pouting right this second,” he laughed, and Keith let his fingers claw gently in accusation at Shiro’s belly through the fabric, his thumbs splaying underneath, affectionately seeking skin. This was more like it. This was what he wanted to remember.   
  
This was what he was losing.  
  
Later, he never visited that room. He stared at the fading chart of paper and ink in the wall of his shack. He drew a line with his finger, tracing the path he'd taken.   
  
Only three billion miles, or so.   
  
Maybe it would be okay.  

**Author's Note:**

> first one in the collection of VLD drabbles. based on the popular 'things you said' tumblr prompt! [here!](http://bathands.tumblr.com/post/166916049095/send-me-a-pairing-and-one-of-these-and-ill-write)
> 
> some good old organic free range wholefoods garrison sheith. i've read a lot of this kind of prompt about them and it usually follows the plot line of them like, space skyping lol so i wanted to interpret it a little differently. sometimes you can seem the far away from someone even if you're standing right next to them. 
> 
> thanks to @otasucc on tumblr for sending me this prompt. i love her and would murder everyone on earth for her, thank. please go and like all of her selfies.
> 
> i haven't written in a while as i've been going through a whole lot of hardship but i did my best. please leave a comment if you enjoyed! there will be more to come (inc sheith, platonic keitor, thace/ulaz). i really really enjoy this fic format. you can send me more on tumblr if you wish :^)


End file.
